Payday lender going after Seel for bounced check

A state representative is being sued in small claims court for failing to repay a payday loan.

Payday Loan Store of AZ #341 filed the lawsuit against Rep. Carl Seel, a Phoenix Republican, June 17. The one-page filing claims that Seel bounced a $588.23 check he had given the lender to secure a loan.

Seel told the Yellow Sheet Report, a sister publication of Arizona Capitol Times that first reported on the lawsuit, that he was unaware the check had bounced or that he was being sued.

“I’ll make good on it. I’m not going to leave them hanging,” he said. “It’s embarrassing. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Seel said he sought the payday loan earlier this year after his business, a small publishing company, began to suffer as a result of the economic downturn.

“A lot of people are struggling now, and I’m not immune to the economy,” he said.